WARD - WE HAVE A WEEK TO IMPROVE THINGS

10 September 2013

Manager on defeat at Plymouth

John Ward says that he knows his side have goals in them, he just needs to get his forward players up to match fitness.

The manager was disappointed with his side’s attacking play against Plymouth on Saturday, and admitted that he is currently having to manage his front men as they have all missed a lot of football through injury.

John said: “Saturday was a game where neither side had many shots on target, and from our point of view the forward play was pretty poor.

“I would much rather have come out of that game losing 1-0 if we had had 15 shots on goal because I know that it will put itself right. I am not very pleased with it at all.

”We have got a good week now to improve things and we have got to work at it. I am going to need to keep managing my front men for the next few weeks.

“They need to recapture their match sharpness, as we know they can score goals, we just have to work hard at the creativity and the finishing.

“I think a training week will help us for Saturday. I know there are goals in there, we just have to get that match fitness up to scratch as soon as we can.”

And the manager will benefit from having a few more players back in the next few weeks; although Jim Paterson has suffered a set back.

John said: “We are going to get Ollie Clarke back, and that will strengthen midfield. If Ollie comes through the Mangotsfield game we have him available for the weekend.

”And in two or three weeks we will also get Seanan Clucas back, and that will strengthen midfield also.

“Seanan is six months into a recovery that usually requires nine months, he is working exceptionally hard, and we have to manage him to make sure we don’t put him back in too soon.

“But he is training every day and he is in with the group.

“We just need to strengthen Eliot up, that might take a week or two, he is not training as he has a sore hamstring. We run the risk of throwing him in and losing him for the whole six weeks if we are not careful.

“Jim has had a bit of a set back, he was looking to get back to training after six weeks, but that period came and they have told him to keep the boot on for another four.”